Pitch a Story

Pride Source Media is a multi-tiered media company with two primary publishing assets: Pride Source’s publications (Between The Lines Newspaper, Pride Source Magazine, Pride Source Yellow Pages, which are print products, as well as our digital platform, Pridesource.com) and Q Syndicate (the national LGBTQ+ wire service for regional LGBTQ+ press). We cover a wide range of topics that are of interest to the LGBTQ+ population: LGBTQ+ politics, relationships and weddings, sex, health, home, LGBTQ+ people and their pets, pop culture and celebrities, and other queer-centric trends. We feature a variety of types of stories: Short and long features, profiles, Q&As, essays, opinion pieces, listicles and video interviews. Though our focus is on Michigan, we are open to national stories, particularly national stories with a Michigan spin.

What to pitch: We are interested in telling stories of survival and perseverance that reflect our tenacious LGBTQ+ community by highlighting stories of intersectionality and the complexity of our identities. Know someone in the LGBTQ+ community who’s doing something important and trailblazing that no one is talking about but should be talking about? That’s a pitch. But we’re also interested in a variety of LGBTQ-focused storytelling: personal essays that dig deep into heavy queer issues (or not-so-heavy ones too!), mainstream news stories with a queer angle (ex. student debt forgiveness), investigative enterprise reporting, and profiles and Q&As with noteworthy people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Be specific with your pitch: We’re far more likely to consider a pitch that doesn’t just tell us “this happened and I want to write about it,” or “I’m watching a show with a queer character and I want to write about it.” What about the thing or event or show, specifically, do you want to write about? Give us your focus, angle or argument and let us know what resources you plan on tapping into to tell your story: Who would you talk to for this piece? Are there specific experts you’d want to speak with? Or a certain demographic of people you’d be trying to connect with? Do you have a sense of how you’d reach them?

Be yourself and be original: Your pitch is a first impression. Show us your tone and your voice so we have an idea of who you are. And please do a Google search to see if your angle or focus has already been covered in other LGBTQ+ media or elsewhere. We want stories that will stand out among adjacent media outlets.

Be brief: Your pitch to us shouldn’t be a novel. Just a few enticing paragraphs, then a short bio and a few published clips. If you haven’t been published, blog writing works too. Send those links so we have a better idea of who you are as a writer. Send pitches in the body of an email with no attachments.

Lead time: 1-2 months; shorter if the pitch is timely

Pay rate: Columns/essays $100-$125; News features, other news/pop culture reporting $100-$250

Direct all pitches to:

Chris Azzopardi, Editorial Director: [email protected] and Sarah Bricker Hunt, Managing Editor: [email protected]

General inbox: [email protected]